Assignment 2. Gallery prep work TUESDAY 8am-

Alright the plan is meet for painting and scraping TUESDAY 8am - 10am (or as long as you can or want to work). Some of you like Chad Sorg, Matt McDowell, and Anthony Alston would rather do Wednesday so we'll have a second round that day as well. I would really love to have everyone there for Tuesday morning though because I want to create a timelapse animation of the space being erased as each person is standing in front of their piece from last year. I'll fill you in on more of the details when we're there, so try to be on time...or you just might lose a donut.
Also I've been talking with Ahren and Caedron about planning for the side of the alley that will be the collaborative mural and we decided on a few elements that we think are absolutely necessary for it to be clean and 100% booyarific. If you do not like the strictness of it keep in mind that the opposite wall is free and twice as big. The rules for the collabo wall are,
1. A minimal pallette which is followed and uniform throughout. We would build a base using colors that aren't intense and do not become opaque. So warm browns or maybe greys. Than introduce perhaps several shades of blue which are used consistenly by all on that side. From that point we would collectively decide which colors to further introduce and where.
2. Elimate intangible space. There needs to be a reason for your character's postioning or your letterings placement. Objects that emerge from the base need to appear as such. Images floating by need to be floating for a reason like a rope, a gust of wind, a sweet pair of go-go gadget boots.
3. Follow the theme. With such a vague theme, the people interested in working on the collabo side would devise a more specific theme put in the context of a specific environment with elements that relate to one another for that space. Most of us already paint thematically. Most of us also paint our theme using an individual "style". Without sacrificing our individual style we may have to sacrifice our individual theme to meet the demands of the whole instead of reverting to any sort of comfort zone. Meaning, I can not paint anything having to do with the railroad. Ok, you get my drift.
If you would like to become involved with the whip crackers let me, Ahren, or Caedron now and we'll start sketching out a game plan soon.



Idea departure for comment to Davis.



..and Nick L. go here... http://www.vkn.lv/index.php?parent=525 ...to see what I was talking about.

Brian Porray

i would also like to take this opportunity to bring attention to the fact that rob brown's arms are significantly longer than mine...

e3d not e40

Yale Johnson has been researching 3-d imagery and wants to create a large scale red/blue painting in the alley way. He also found a company that makes and sells 3-d glasses. We were thinking that maybe we could use the 3-d glasses as the show flyer and print the postcard info with a stamp on the sides. We can get 1000 of the these for $250 and then we would just need volunteers to do all the stamping. Red and blue stamps overlapped and off center of course.

'Erase All Aerosol'

Watch the video

The first exhibition began at the (con)Temporary Gallery and wound through the neighborhood. I passed out some books made of drawings on transparency paper. The first page in the book was a map with directions and the participant followed the diagram until reaching a large X on the ground. At these X's the transparencies could be held up and alligned with a drawing on the wall to make a new drawing. The book contained about a dozen drawings that gave life to blobs of paint left by city-workers who were trying to erradicate graffiti. The book was an attempt to compare the work of the graffit artist and the person erasing it.

First Meeting (after thoughts)

Ok, we met, we chatted, Jeff Johnson brought some proverbial words, and a couple dogs got petted. After all that, I am still not sure what was accomplished at the meeting. You probably are thinking the same thing. But atleast now we are thinking about it. Whatever it might be.

So with that I'm going to say please get on this forum and jot down your comments. Haiku, art speak, keg-fueled rant, whatever...just drop what you're feeling.

Since I don't think we got the theme hammered out I'm going to reiterate what I interpreted it to be from the meeting. The sectioned off wall will be for those opposed to a theme. So non-conformists and counter-cultuteers that's for you. For all those who want to collaborate and make some cohesion, work on the other side in the theme of 'magic/illusion'. Oh and if you don't like the theme, than Toni Ortega says you can pick, "it's either Magic or Horses." I'm guessing the sarcasm in everyone is saying, "Fuck man, horses sounds tight!" But seriously, I think the theme has a wealth of resources to tap into and I'm all about making it work. Secondly, I am for some sort of color scheme. And since our resources are this, that, and whatever else we get donated, I think we can solve it by connecting everything with a universal color. Hey, it works in the world of graffiti and graffiti is done by retards.

So as an example, I would have a blue line that weaves through my section and than when it hits Rob Brown's section it outlines it and then at Heather Fuss' seciton the blue line could come out of the wall in the form of blue died bird seed and weave through her installation and etc...It doesn't have to be blue, it doesn't have to be an outline, but just a general something that could activate everyone's work into one package. To me, it seems like a solution but again, think of something better and I'm game.

Everyone seems to have some ideas they are kicking around right now. Few were verbalized at the meeting but the ones I can recall were, Matt McDowell painting a trompe l'oeil style extension of the gallery at one of the ends. Jeff Johnson creating a (con)Temporary Gallery neon sign for the Virginia St. Side. Heather Fuss installing birdseed mannequins. Nick Larsen attaching transparent frames with drawing in laid. Me making a life-size book hinged on the wall. Chad Sorg painting explosions. Caedron Burchfield painting Mexican influened Tarot magic cards.

I'm also putting out the following disclaimer...painting is not the only option. Sometimes I feel like I emphasize the mural aspect unintentionally and pressure you guys into thinking that we've got to paint these walls. We don't have to paint the walls. We don't have to touch the walls. If sound is your thing than do sound. If performance is your deal, perform. Because there are a thousand ways we can fill in that alleyway and painting might be the most uninteresting way to do it.

I think this is a decent start and I propose that we post ideas here so no one is left in the dark. You don't have to be a member to comment on this page, but if you are a member than I can block all the spam. Also, it's free to join and to this day I haven't gotten any junk mail from my information being released. I'll also be back in June so I'll be free to meet in person. One on one or do the big meeting again. If you need to reach me you can call 775 772 2629. Until next time....

erikb
p.s. go to Anthony Alston's show Sat. June 3rd@7pm, NeverEnderGallery 350W.Liberty St. that's not an order, it's just written that way because it should be.

photo provided my Mikey Mlktoast